only for ourselves and our loved ones and their needs, but for everyone: the whole church, the world and its lead- ers, and the local community. This kind of all-inclusive prayer is at the heart of Christian worship precisely because Jesus Christ died and rose again, not just for a few but for all people.
Offertory
As we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper, we sing a song. Sometimes it will be a portion of Scripture itself, such as Psalm 51 (“Create in me a clean heart, O God”). Other times it will be the hymn of an ancient or con- temporary Christian.
In fact, when Martin Luther con- sidered Paul’s words (that Christians should offer “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” from Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19), he thought it meant that we should sing the Psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures, the hymns of the New Testament (such as the angels’ song in Luke 2), and the spiritual songs composed by later Christians.
So every hymn, especially the
offertory, reflects Christian praise down through the centuries and ful- fills Paul’s encouragement to Chris- tians of Colossae and Ephesus.
Singing with the angels (again) As we draw closer to the second high point in worship (the first being the reading of the Gospel and the ser- mon), we again echo the words of the angels.
This time, Christian worshipers hearken back to Isaiah’s vision in the temple, where he hears the seraphim with their six wings singing: “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory” (Isaiah 6:3). Indeed, this God comes to us in this meal. The ancient Christian hymn writer, however, then combined that vision
of God with Jesus’ entry into Jeru- salem, where the crowds shouted, “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9).
Just as Jesus came into Jerusalem, humbly seated on a donkey, so he comes to us in the humble elements of bread and wine. No wonder the church has always sung: “Yeah, God! Hosanna in the highest!”
The Last Supper is the Lord’s! In the middle of our celebration, just prior to our receiving Christ’s body and blood with the bread and wine, Christians read a second Gospel les- son. Unlike the one read earlier in the worship service, this one never changes. It tells us what Jesus is doing for us in this meal. First, he tells us that this meal is about him (not us): “Do this in remembrance of me!”
Second, he promises to show up. (“This is my body. … This is my blood of the covenant.”)
Third, this meal is for us and for our salvation. (“Given for you. … Shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”)
Now we are at the very heart and center of the gospel message! It is a good thing that Lutherans now (more often than not) celebrate the Lord’s Supper weekly.
Even if in a particular week (due either to the pastor’s unclearness or our wandering minds) we don’t hear Christ speak to us in the Gospel reading and the sermon, Christ not only speaks to us a second time in the supper but gives us what he is speak- ing about: his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Now what is more biblical than that?
And now: A word from John the Baptist
As Christians prepare to receive the
meal, they sing a song that origi- nated with John the Baptist. In John 1, he is standing with some of his disciples (who will leave him to follow Jesus) and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (29).
Already in the fourth century, first Greek-speaking Christians and then, in translation, Latin-speaking Christians began to sing, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us … grant us peace.” For this meal is the Christian Passover, at which we feed upon the Lamb of God and receive forgive- ness, life and salvation. Like the other major songs in
Lutheran liturgy, this one, too, focuses upon Christ’s presence with us in this meal and our worship. In the same way, many of the other songs we sing while the bread and wine are being distributed reverber- ate with other parts of the Bible that praise God’s presence and grace.
A final blessing In Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the pastor has a variety of blessings to choose from, almost all of them from some part of the Bible. The oldest one, however, and the
one that Luther chose for his Ger- man mass, comes from Numbers 6 and the words that God instructs the high priest Aaron (Moses’ brother) to say to the people. And 3,200 years later, Lutherans are still using those majestic words: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord’s face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace” (24-26). What a way to go with God’s
blessing. A lot of people assume that a
Christian blessing means approval for something, since that is the way we use the word in English. But
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